


VII

by tcourtois



Series: Fork in the road [6]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 09:05:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3723166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tcourtois/pseuds/tcourtois





	VII

I.

Ava

“You’ve got a bit of a glow about you, or is that the cocktails?” I sat down on the edge of my bed as I watched Emma struggle to get her shoes off, her fingers fumbling with the fastenings.

“Don’t you tease me! You’re the one who I just found half naked in Marco Reus’ hotel room. Explain please.” She looked up at me as she caved in and simply just used sheer force to yank the heel off, letting out a sigh of relief when her feet were free.

“It was nothing. We were waiting for the two of you to get back from the date we set you up on. Hope you enjoyed that by the way.” I smirked before continuing, “And when we heard Marcel fall ass over tit he helped me to climb over the balcony onto their side which is why I came through the balcony doors.”

“To a sober brain, that would sound plausible. To a drunk brain however, you banged Reus.” Emma lay back on her bed, giggling softly to herself.

“I did not!” grabbing one of my pillows I hurled it at her head.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. He’s like, mega attractive. Imagine how many women have fanaticized about sleeping with him. I bet he wouldn’t disappoint.” She continued her giggling fit to the point where I worried if she was actually able to breathe properly.

I lay down and rolled to face her, propping my head up on my elbow. “There’s something I wanted to tell you actually, and you’re going to chew me out for even having the idea, but he has kind of already agreed to do it so…”

“What are you talking about? You’re making very little sense.”

“There was this article about me and Marco today and it kind of gave me an idea.” I began, but before I could go any further she sprung up from her laying position and brandished her phone.

“You mean like this one?” she tapped away for a few seconds before thrusting the phone in my direction.

Her hands were shaking so I was only able to make out the headline and the brief first line below it. The journalist alleged that Marco had been planning to ‘steal’ me from Mats for months.

“It was a bit like that one yeah. Except it said that we were having an affair.”

“I read this one to Marcel in the restaurant. It says that a source close to Marco confirmed that Marco has had a crush on you for years and has been trying to get with you for ages. It sounds like total bollocks though. The only people close to Marco are Robin and Marcel and they don’t run their mouths like that. The article literally came out this afternoon, and they haven’t been anywhere near a journalist. I think you should just ignore the whole thing. It’ll blow over and they’ll realise you and Marco are just friends. Now I’m making sense so I must be sobering up.” She reached for her water on the night stand and drank some of it. She did look a little brighter, although I wouldn’t say she was sobering up.

“Actually that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I don’t want them to stop writing about me and Marco. I’ve asked him if we can make it look like something might be starting to happen.” I covered my face with my hands.

“That’s a very dangerous game to play. Surely you know fake relationships never go well? Either you’re going to fall for him and not have it reciprocated or the other way round. Plus if you’re doing this to hurt Mats then you are just sinking to his level.” I sighed, knowing that she was right. I had expected her to react in this way. I knew she was just looking out for me.

“Hey a few minutes ago you were encouraging me to sleep with him!” I laughed.

“That’s because I want things to be real between you. I think they’re real from his side.”

“Hm, we’ll see.” I mumbled. “real or not real.”

~

“I swear I have seen her somewhere before.” I mumbled, looking down at my breakfast bowl. I’d maybe overloaded it, some of the pieces of melon were trying to escape and it made it impossible to move my spoon around.

Emma looked like a walking hangover. Behind her dark shades I knew she was looking over at Robin and the girl as often as I was.

“She’s not familiar to me.” Emma shrugged.

“Not even a little bit? I’m starting to think that I’m making this up.”

Marco jogged over to us then, and pulled out the chair beside me, before pinching a piece of my melon and popping it into his mouth.

“Hey!” I whined.

“You’re not still on the ‘I know her from somewhere’ thing are you?” he asked. Emma immediately descended into giggles.

“She is.”

Marco took another piece of my melon and then snapped a picture of my reaction. I tried wrestling his phone out of his hand but to no avail.

“I’m posting this on Instagram. We’re supposed to be building up the relationship remember?” he looked between me and Emma after he said that, as if he were trying to figure out if she knew or if he’d just opened a can of worms.

“Chill, she knows. I told her last night. I assume you’ve told Marcel and Robin?”

“Marcel yes, Robin no.” he frowned as he said that. I wanted him to elaborate. Robin hadn’t spent more than half an hour with us since we arrived, he was now fully absorbed by the girl he had met. I could tell that it had upset Marco, they were a tight knit group of friends.

“He’s kind of distracted, right?”

Emma sniggered, looking over my shoulder at the couple behind us. Choosing to bring breakfast outside gave us the perfect view of Robin and whatshername frolicking in the pool.

“Her name is Lara. He didn’t tell me what she did, because they prefer not to talk about work apparently.” Marco then took my juice, and drank the last dregs of it.

“This trip was supposed to be for the three of you. Then we gate crashed it. If it weren’t for us this would be a lads holiday. I feel like we ruined it.” Emma was right with that point. We had technically hijacked their holiday, and as a result Robin probably thought it was ok to spend so much time with Lara because Robin and Marcel were tied up with us.

“Marco that is the ugliest picture of me I have ever seen.” I whined, as I scrolled through Instagram to find the picture of me that he had taken.

‘When you steal a girl’s melon’ is what he had captioned the picture.

“There’s no such thing as an ugly picture of you Ava.” He rested his arm on the back of my chair. “Except all of the ones that I’m going to be in with you.” He then started waving.

“Who the hell are you waving at?” Emma turned around, looking behind us and even whipping off her shades to get a better look.

“The girl over there with the camera phone. She looks like she’s in trouble but really she’s helping us out. Have you heard anything from Mats since the articles starting popping up?” he pulled another face at the fan.

“Nothing actually. All of the calls and texts have stopped and I’ve seen nothing in the press about him. He must just be staying home and laying low. Until the season starts up again there’s a good chance I won’t see anything of him. He hasn’t announced the split yet and I’m not doing it until we get home.”

“You’re going to be the one to announce it? Do you know what you want to say?” he fired questions at me whilst putting his hand on my back, rubbing gently in a comforting way.

“Not exactly. I just have to beat him to it.”

II.

Mats

I panicked, wiping the blood off onto my dark trousers where I thought the stain would least show up, then dug my phone out of my pocket, having to google what the French emergency service number was before hurriedly tapping it in.

The operator answered in French, and of course I didn’t know French so I spat out the address and her location on the stairwell of floor 13 in English. The operator answered me in very broken English and a thick accent apologising that she wasn’t good at English, and promising to pass me over to her supervisor.

I said the address again before hanging up, not waiting to speak to the supervisor. Then I stood from my kneeling position, paced around Cathy once before bending down to test her pulse. It was there, weak, but undeniable.

I had to go. Ava would be wondering where I was if she had woken. I really hoped that she hadn’t.

I didn’t look back at Cathy as I walked back up to the landing and got into the lift. Pressing the 0 I waited for the lift to move.

When I got to the reception I walked past with my head down, straight past the concierges and receptionists who seemed to be in a panic. Then I saw the ambulance that had just come to a screeching halt on the asphalt outside, they had driven up the steps that lead to the door, there was no other way to reach it.

I paused for a moment, joining the small crowd of guests that had joined together to spectate. One woman spoke some English, speaking to a man beside her that I presumed was her husband she said. “I bet it’s a murder. We should have booked the one that had great trip advisor reviews. This is all your fault Derek. It’s just like Bree all over again.”

Cathy would kill me when she woke up. I was sure of that. She was going to survive, I knew that for certain, because she was always going to expose what we had done. It was not possible for her to go quietly.

I pushed my way through the crowd to the door and exited out into the cold air. I jogged half of the way back to the hotel, until the hum and squeak of the sirens was out of ear shot.

I took the stairs up to our room, taking them a few at a time with long strides, not really caring if I fell down myself, I probably deserved that. Had it been my fault, had I pushed her? I didn’t think that I had pushed her but it had all happened so fast.

Of course she could wake up and tell everyone that I pushed her and ruin my life that way, then adding to the story that I tried to kill her to cover up our affair. That line had her name written all over it. This was turning out to be just like the book that Ava had insisted I had to read on our last holiday, gone girl. It was about a wife that set her cheating husband up for her murder. Ironically whilst reading it I imagined that it were my life. Ava wasn’t sadistic enough to set me up like that though, she was more of the ‘never speak to you again’ type but Cathy…

Cathy was an Amy Dunne.

I pulled my tie off as I approached the door, not really knowing why I had put it back on to go and meet Cathy, it wasn’t really necessary and she could have strangled me with it in the mood she had been in.

I had tucked the key card into my wallet and struggled to pull it out, cursing under my breath before wiggling it free and sliding it into the reader.

Without turning any of the lights on for fear of waking Ava I stumbled around in the dark, chucking my tie aside, and leaning against the wall to pull my shoes off.

“Mats?”

Shit.

She put the bedside light on and rubbed her eyes. She looked like a fawn when she was sleepy like that, she smiled groggily then gave me a confused look. “Where have you been?”

I laughed and then walked over to her, perching on the edge of the bed I ran my fingers through her hair before leaning down to press a tender kiss to her forehead. “I just went out for a walk. You know how I struggle to sleep sometimes.”

“Oh, I thought you’d just run away because I was terrible in bed earlier or something.” She let out a sheepish laugh and I squeezed her gently in my arms.

“I think we both know that isn’t true love. I’m coming back to bed now any way.” I stood and slipped out of my trousers quickly, tossing them into the suitcase without a second look. I knew I’d have to either bin them or wash them by hand when we got home. I could think of nothing worse than Ava discovering them, there was no lie in the world elaborate enough to cover that up.

“You’re in a hurry to get undressed.” She noticed, smiling over at me.

“That’s because it’s cold and the sooner I get undressed, the sooner I can get under the warm covers and cuddle up to you. You’re a human radiator.” Unbuttoning my shirt I breathed a sigh of relief, because she seemed to believe me. I almost felt bad every time she accepted a lie of mine. I was getting too adept at doing it.

My mother told me that I had a way with words. Turns out that extended to being an efficient liar. I must have gotten that from her, surely.

~

Ava

“He went out last night and he was really weird when he came back. It was the early hours of the morning too. I don’t think he normally goes out for walks like that at home. Not at that time of night any way. We’re in Paris, it’s a romantic trip, he’s supposed to be paying attention to me but he’s distracted and distant. I think something’s going on.” I spoke quietly into the phone, Emma on the other end listening intently.

“It’s probably just that he’s been planning for ages and he’s nervous about everything going well. Maybe he went out last night to try to get another surprise set up. You never know.” Emma tried reassuring me, but she wasn’t the best person at that.

“Emma I’m being serious when I ask you this. When did you first start to suspect that your husband was cheating on you?” I peeped around the corner to make sure that Mats hadn’t come back from breakfast yet. I had told him that I wasn’t hungry when really I was ravenous and had devoured everything in the mini bar, but couldn’t turn up the chance to call Emma and vent.

“When I found blonde hair in the back of the Merc. But you haven’t found anything like that so I think you should just chill unless you have something more substantial. He’s probably just stressed because his team is playing like horse shit and he feels responsible.” I let out an audible sigh as I let Emma talk me down. She was right about the way Dortmund were playing. Sometimes I forgot that Mats was captain and had the weight of the whole team on his shoulders. After the world cup expectation had been huge and he’d managed it well, but now they were crumbling, all of that confidence was suddenly diminished.

“You know what, you’re right. I’m being stupid. I have no actual evidence. Thanks for calming me down. I knew I could count on you.”

“Now go enjoy Paris you silly bitch. I don’t want to hear from you again until you’re back at work!”

I smiled at the phone, mumbling quietly. “You’re the best, Em.”


End file.
